Another significant event in 1798 was the opening of the Edin burgh Circus. This was a building which had been used by the Relief Church for public worship while their new edifice was being construc ted. It was the idea and the financial resources of Robert Haldane that enabled the Circus to be purchased as a preaching station similar to Whitefield's Tabernacle in Moorfields, London. The Edinburgh Circus opened on the 29th July, 1798, with the English preacher, Rowland Hill, delivering the first sermon. While visiting other places in, Scotland during week-days, Hill continued to preach each Sunday in the Circus until the end of August. When Hill returned to England, R. Haldane accompanied him. During his visit in the south, Robert Haldane conceived of a plan for establishing other preaching
points in Glasgow and Dundee which, along with the Edinburgh Circus, would each be served by a "stated minister" plus a rotation of visiting preachers. He went on to envision the possibility of still other tabernacles being erected in other parts of Scotland which, "if they conformed to the same strict and scriptural discipline, might be
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united, as far as Congregational principles admit." R. Haldane formed another plan while he was in England. He envisioned a scheme of sending "pious young men" to England to be educated for the
ministry. Consequently when he returned to Scotland in the autumn, R. Haldane presented his two proposed projects to his colleagues of the S.P.G.H. The establishment of tabernacles met with approval. However, the idea of educating young men in England received definite opposition.
3^Gavin Struthers, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Principles of the Relief Church, p. 402,
S^Robert Haldane, " A d d ^ s ^ to the Public, Concerning Politics and Plans Lately Adopted to Prom^t^ Religion ^ Scotland," p. 82.
"These prejudices," summarized Ewing’s biographer-daughter, "were more particularly pressed on his attention by Mr. Garie, of Perth, who, at the same time, suggested my father as suitable to undertake the charge. Mr. Haldane, therefore, (several weeks after the proposal respecting
the tabernacles, ) requested my father to instruct a class, which was to consist of twenty students; remarking, that if he declined the work, they must still, as at first proposed, be sent to the south. In these
53
circumstances, my father agreed to this also." At that time,
Greville Ewing was still serving the Established Church as one of the ministers of Lady Glenorchy's Chapel. However, on 1st December, 1798, Mr. Ewing addressed a letter to the Moderator of the Presbytery of Edinburgh stating that he had become convinced that it was his "duty to decline being considered, any longer, a minister of the Church of Scotland"34 ^nd requesting that the Presbytery sustain his resignation from Lady Glenorchy's Chapel. Two weeks later Ewing accepted an
assignment by the S.P.G.H. in which he spent ten days itinerating in Perth, Dunkeld, and several other towns in that area. On 26th
December, two days after he had completed his brief tour, the Edinburgh Presbytery accepted Ewing’s resignation and demission from the ministry in the Church of Scotland.
The tours of the so-called "missionaries" of the S.P.G.H., the publication of the Journal, the growth of the Sunday school movement, the opening of the Edinburgh Circus, the plans for an independent academy for training "missionaries" and ministers— these events of 1798 kindled widespread fervour in Scotland. Especially in the north, immense audiences were attracted to the activities of this new
S^Matheson, o£. cit., p. 173. S^Ibid., p. 177.
movement. Thé agents o£ this cause were so intense and so mobile that 55
they "created the impression that they were everywhere." Fellowship groups, local missionary societies, and Sabbath school committees conspiculously increased in numbers and endorsed the efforts of the S.P.G.H. All of this non-denominatiohal activity became an object of growing concern to every branch of Presbyterianism, While some may have regarded the movement as a threat to the foundations of organized churches, and some others may have been suspicious of it as a product of the ideas of the French Revolution, the primary opposition to this new manifestation of evangelicalism was its challenge to Presbyterian order. The S.P.G.H, had grown from within the church in the sense that most of its participants claimed membership or affiliation to some branch of the Reformed Church. On the other hand, it was a society outside Presbyterianism in that it had been established with out the sanction or official oversight of any denomination, and it had been significantly influenced and given personal support from English Congregationalist ministers. Thus, most of all, it offended the fundamental concepts of the authority of the Presbytery and the parochial system of an educated, ordained ministry. The Scottish Church had always magnified the office of preaching. The administra tion of the sacraments and the preaching of the Word were viewed as sacred duties which only could be assumed by those who had received approved training and who had been authorized by the jurisdiction of the Church. For laymen to undertake upon their own authority the
office of preaching was an affront to Presbyterian order and a challenge to the Presbyterian system of an educated, ordained minister residing in each parish. Although the Reformation fathers advocated that clergy